Madagascar

Farming, fishing and forestry form the backbone of the Malagasy economy. Agriculture is dominated by rain-fed small-scale subsistence farming: seven out of 10 smallholder farmers own no more than 1.2 hectares of land. Rice is the main staple food and the island’s main crop, but not enough is produced to satisfy the national demand. Agricultural production remains low due to factors including limited access to agricultural productive assets, credit and markets; gender inequality limiting women and girls’ access to land; poor post-harvest techniques; inadequate natural resources management; and lack of adequate access to markets for smallholder farmers.      

Madagascar is among the ten countries most vulnerable to natural disastersand is considered as the most cyclone-exposed country in Africa. A quarter of the population lives in areas highly prone to cyclones, floods or drought. Climate change and environmental degradation exacerbate these risks while the increasing fragility of the ecosystem intensifies vulnerability to shocks and food insecurity. Deforestation has become a major concern: 90 percent of Madagascar’s original rainforests have been lost to logging, charcoal-making and slash-and-burn agriculture.

The Grand Sud region of Madagascar suffered several consecutive years of rain shortfalls which was further aggravated by the global El Niño weather event in 2016 and 2017. Although humanitarian assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP) and other agencies contributed to halving the number of severely food insecure people by the end of the 2016-2017 lean season, the food security situation in the region remains fragile, with 1.6 million people estimated to be severely food insecure – and 393, 145 of them in an ‘emergency condition’ – as of October 2017.

In Madagascar, WFP addresses the immediate food needs and helps strengthen the resilience of disaster affected vulnerable populations through unconditional food assistance and Food Assistance for Assets programmes. WFP also provides nutritional support to children, pregnant women and girls and nursing mothers for the prevention of undernutrition, supports the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition and contributes to education indicators through the school meals programme.

To ensure the sustainability of its interventions, WFP strengthens the capacities of the Government of Madagascar through the provision of material and technical assistance and joint assessments and evaluations in the areas of food security and nutrition as well as Disaster Risk Reduction.

WFP’s work is concentrated in the southern, south-western and south-eastern regions, as well as in poor urban areas of the capital, Antananarivo, Toamasina (Tamatave) and Tuléar.